TOKYO – The United States has agreed to a Japanese proposal to move an American air station on the southern island of Okinawa to an existing U.S. base, Kyodo News agency reported today.
The report said lead U.S. negotiator Richard Lawless told Japanese defense chief Yoshinori Ono that Washington would go along with the Japanese plan.
The Japanese Defense Agency refused to immediately confirm the report.
The United States had pushed to build an offshore heliport to take over the role of the Marine Corps air station at Futenma, while Japan wanted to move Futenma’s facilities to inside Camp Schwab.
If confirmed, such a deal would lift the main stumbling block to an agreement on the realignment of the 50,000 U.S. troops based in Japan.
Japanese and U.S. officials had hoped to resolve the dispute over Futenma in time for the announcement of an interim agreement on the military realignment at talks this weekend in Washington.
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